The incident was exposed last month. Leung admitted his involvement, but denied any wrongdoing. Leung will leave office on July 1.

Several pro-democracy lawmakers, including Ted Hui, Roy Kwong and Claudia Mo, reported the incident to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), alleging that Leung and Chow committed misconduct in public office.

UGL acquired DTZ in 2011, a company of which Leung was a director, before he became Chief Executive in 2012.

Leung had often argued that the agreement with UGL was a normal “non-compete and non-poach” agreement, therefore he did not need to declare any interest to the Executive Council. Parts of the payment were received during his tenure as Hong Kong’s leader.

ICAC. File photo: Tom Grundy/HKFP.

An ICAC spokesperson told local media that in general, it will not comment on individual cases, but it is the ICAC’s statutory duty to follow up on all pursuable corruption complaints in accordance with the law and established procedures, if there is enough information.

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